Religion work
8346p5g33
nov10lecture.pptx10 November 2015
Sacramental theology
Introduction
Sacramental theology emphasizes the larger manifestation of God’s grace, the presence of God and the transformation that brings this manifestation about, in and through a community of faith and sacramental worship.
The Church is the starting point for sacramental theology because the type of manifestation of God’s grace doesn’t exist outside the confines of the worshiping community.
What does this mean?
The Church is not confined to the Church building. Christians go to the Church building to be nourished, but Christ remains with them even after the Mass has ended…
The sacraments are expressions of the relationship between God and humans.
Sacrament and sacramentality
Sacramental life is an expression of God’s gracious offer of love, basically the offer with relationship with God.
The sacramental life is also an expression of the human desire to be in relation to God.
The desire is expressed in prayer.
Prayer is the conscious striving to be in relation with God.
Related to prayer is the openness to the surrender to God’s presence.
Through prayer humans experience God’s grace. This means that God’s grace is intrinsically incarnational and sacramental.
sacraments
The incarnation refers to Christ becoming human. “And the Word (Jesus) became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1:14)
What the incarnation shows is that God desires relationship with humans.
In other words, it is in Jesus that humanity and divinity meet.
After the ascension the Church is still incarnational, meaning that we still experience the actual presence of God, but it is experience most profoundly in the sacraments.
The sacraments are inherently communal. They cannot be experienced alone. This shows God’s communal nature.
The sacraments are experienced within the liturgical life of the Church.
Liturgy refers to the official rites and rituals of the Church, or the Church’s worship. The main liturgy of the Catholic Church is the Mass.
Sacraments
Sacraments are symbols of God’s presence in human life, history, world, and Church.
Another definition of sacrament is a visible sign of an invisible grace.
God is made known to us through the rites and rituals of the Church.
The sacraments all have earthly “elements” that demonstrate to us the reality of God’s presence. (Elements: water, oil, wine, bread, salt, etc.)
The sacraments tend to mark various states of life.
Initiation: Birth and rebirth
Sacrament of the Body of Christ: Everyday living the relationship with God.
Being (Commitment): Holy Orders (Ordination) and Marriage (Matrimony)
Forgiveness and Healing: Anointing of the Sick and Penance (Confession)
Sacraments of initiation: Baptism
Baptism is the first sacrament a Christian receives. It is in baptism that a person is initiated into Christ’s Church.
Most Christians (Catholics, Orthodox and Coptic Christians, and Anglicans) baptize infants.
The baptismal elements are water, oil, blessed salt, and fire (candle).
During baptism a person is either immersed or has water poured over their heads to symbolize the dying a rising to new life in Christ.
Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, which sets forth his life of ministry (Gospel of Luke).
Baptism also sets forth the Christian’s life of faith.
Sacraments of initiation: Confirmation
Confirmation is the sacrament that completes the initiation rite.
The earthly elements of Confirmation are oil, laying on of hands, and (sometimes) fire (candle).
The Sacrament of Confirmation is understood as a sealing with the Holy Spirit.
It is also understood as a form of protection against sin and evil.
In many Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches Confirmation comes after first Eucharist. This is a historical development that didn’t occur in the East. Eastern Orthodox Christians and Byzantine Catholics receive Baptism, Confirmation (or Chrismation), and first Eucharist in one ceremony.
Sacrament of the body of Christ: Eucharist (Holy communion)
The Eucharist is the sacrament most frequently experienced. Because of this it is understood as the “source and summit” of the Christian faith.
Jesus first initiated the Eucharist in the Gospels when he communed with his disciples at the Last Supper.
The elements for the Eucharist are bread, wine, and water.
The Eucharist is celebrated at every Mass in Catholicism and every Divine Liturgy in Eastern Orthodoxy.
In the Eucharist Christians remember Christ’s life, ministry, death, and resurrection in one ceremony.
Most of Christian theology, including ethics is rooted in Eucharistic theology, or theology about communion with Christ in the Mass.
Sacraments of Forgiveness and healing: Penance
The sacrament of Penance or Confession is one in which Christians are forgiven for sins and the relationship between them and Christ is restored or healed.
The earthly element for Confession is Contrition (feeling sorry and wanting to not sin again) and the prayer of absolution (The priest says, “I absolve you of your sins” and makes the Sign of the Cross.)
In the sacrament of Penance the Christian meets Christ in the confession to a priest. The priest is sacramentally forbidden to tell anyone what is said in confession (not even the police).
The priest is understood to stand in persona Christ or as the person of Christ, which gives them the ability to forgive sins. (It’s actually Christ forgiving the sins through the person of the priest).
Sacraments of forgiveness: Anointing of the Sick
Anointing of the Sick evolved from the Church’s Last Rites. Now, a person can be anointed in the case of any serious illness, even if death may not occur.
The element for anointing is a special kind of ointment or oil.
Anointing of the sick strengthens a person spiritually, but prepares them for suffering of some kind. It provides comfort that Christ and the Church are present in times of illness.
Anointing of the sick also prepares a person for death in certain instances, which acts as healing of sins as well. Often confession is also associated with anointing of the sick.
"We beseech you, Savior of all men, you that have all virtue and power, Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and we pray that you send down from heaven the healing power of the only-begotten [Son] upon this oil, so that for those who are anointed . . . it may be effected for the casting out of every disease and every bodily infirmity . . . for good grace and remission of sins . . . " (The Sacramentary of Serapion 29:1).
Sacrament of being: Marriage and holy orders
The sacrament of marriage and holy orders are sacraments which express the importance of self-sacrificial love, fidelity, and service in the Church.
In the sacrament of Marriage, two people commit themselves to live a life of self-sacrificial love and fidelity to one another until death.
Marriage is considered the “domestic Church” in which the love of Christ is lived out in the love between spouses.
The elements for Marriage are rings (sometimes) and the vows (promises) made to one another before God.
Holy Orders or Ordination is the sacrament that initiates a person (man in Catholic and Orthodox Church) into priestly Eucharistic ministry.
The elements for Holy Orders are a laying on of hands, oil, the kiss of peace, and vows.
